A Newport Beach surgeon and his girlfriend were accused of sexually assaulting a patient, but the judge in their case reduced the charges against them. The surgeon was found guilty of sexual battery and assault with intent to commit rape, but the judge ruled that he should not be charged for those crimes as well as two other counts.
The grant robicheaux update 2024 is a story about how the OC Judge reduced charges against Newport Beach Surgeon, who was accused of sexual assault.
SANTA ANA, Calif. (CBSLA) — An Orange County Superior Court judge granted a motion to lessen the charges against a Newport Beach physician and his girlfriend on Thursday, in the latest twist in an ongoing sexual assault case that has undergone a series of twists and turns.
Two of the alleged victims will now face sexual assault charges against Dr. Grant Robicheaux, 40, and Cerissa Riley, 34. Five people had been charged at the outset. However, there are 13 accusers in all, some of whom prosecutors might use as further proof of a pattern of conduct.
FILE — During their arraignment at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach on October 17, 2018, Dr. Grant Robicheaux and his girlfriend Cerissa Riley listen. (Getty Images/Paul Bersebach/Orange County Register)
After O.C. Superior Court Judge Gregory Jones denied District Attorney Todd Spitzer’s motion to dismiss the case altogether, the matter was transferred to the California Attorney General’s Office last year. In a heated race between Spitzer and his predecessor, Tony Rackauckas, politics was inserted into the issue, he said.
Judge Frank Ospino heard statements from lawyers for the alleged victims and defendants, as well as the prosecution, during a daylong hearing last Thursday.
The case’s twists and turns have left one alleged victim “exhausted,” according to Ospino, including the recent unexpected decision by Orange County Superior Court Judge Steven Bromberg to disqualify himself from the case.
The lady told Ospino, “This case is a total farce.”
Robicheaux and Riley were charged with rape by use of drugs, oral copulation by anesthetic, assault with intent to conduct sexual crime, and possession of a restricted substance for sale in September of 2018.
Robicheaux and Riley would meet their victims at nearby pubs and restaurants, drug them, and then take them home to sexually attack them, according to then-Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. Investigators obtained approximately 1,000 of these videos on the defendants’ phones, according to Rackauckas.
In February 2024, however, new O.C. DA Todd Spitzer gave a startling press conference in which he said that after taking office, he assigned fresh prosecutors to the case, and their investigation found no proof of unconscious women being attacked.
Spitzer accused his predecessor, Rackauckas, of potential prosecutorial misconduct, accusing him of sensationalizing the case and pursuing it as a media ploy to help him re-elect himself. Spitzer, a veteran Orange County Supervisor, beat Rackauckas in the November 2018 DA election.
Spitzer stated that his office will ask for the charges against Robicheaux and Riley to be dropped, citing a lack of evidence and the previous DA’s mismanagement of the case.
After reviewing Spitzer’s motion, OC Superior Court Judge Gregory Jones declared in June 2024 that the charges will not be dismissed. Spitzer’s office was withdrawn from the lawsuit the next month, and the California Attorney General took over.
Both Robicheaux and Riley have pled not guilty to the allegations and are now out on bond.
(CBS Broadcasting Inc., Copyright 2024, All Rights Reserved.) This article was written with the help of City News Service.)
Grant Robicheaux, a Newport Beach surgeon, was accused of sexual assault by his girlfriend. The OC Judge reduced the charges against him and his girlfriend, who is also a doctor.
